webrtc-rs/rtc Roadmap #1
Description
RTC Project Roadmap
Architecture: Sans-I/O WebRTC Implementation in Rust
Last Updated: January 2026
Project Vision
Build a production-ready, runtime-independent WebRTC stack in pure Rust using the sans-I/O architecture pattern,
providing developers with complete control over networking, threading, and async runtime integration while maintaining
full WebRTC specification compliance.
Current Status
✅ Completed Features
Core Protocol Stack
- ✅ ICE (Interactive Connectivity Establishment) with STUN/TURN support
- ✅ ICE Restart support
- ✅ DTLS (Datagram Transport Layer Security) v1.2
- ✅ SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol)
- ✅ RTP/RTCP (Real-time Transport Protocol)
- ✅ SRTP with AEAD AES-GCM support (RFC 7714)
- ✅ SDP (Session Description Protocol) with offer/answer
- ✅ Unified Plan SDP (modern API)
- ✅ BUNDLE support
- ✅ mDNS (Multicast DNS) for local network discovery
- ✅ ICE TCP candidates (passive/active)
WebRTC Features
- ✅ Data Channels (reliable & unreliable, configurable)
- ✅ Media Tracks (audio/video)
- ✅ Simulcast (send & receive)
- ✅ SVC (Scalable Video Coding)
- ✅ Add/Remove tracks at runtime
- ✅ Insertable Streams
- ✅ Trickle ICE
- ✅ Statistics API
Interceptors & Media Processing
- ✅ Interceptor framework for RTP/RTCP manipulation
- ✅ NACK (Negative Acknowledgment) interceptor
- ✅ TWCC (Transport Wide Congestion Control) interceptor
- ✅ Sender/Receiver Report interceptors
Codec Support
- ✅ VP8/VP9 packetizers and depacketizers
- ✅ H.264/H.265 packetizers and depacketizers
- ✅ AV1 support
- ✅ Opus audio
- ✅ PCM audio
- ✅ IVF reader/writer for disk I/O
Architecture
- ✅ Sans-I/O design with
poll_*andhandle_*APIs - ✅ Runtime-independent (works with tokio, async-std, smol, blocking I/O)
- ✅ Modular crate structure (15 composable crates)
- ✅ Zero-copy packet processing where possible
Development & Quality
- ✅ 30+ comprehensive examples (data channels, media streaming, simulcast, broadcast, etc.)
- ✅ Integration tests with WebRTC (browser) interoperability
- ✅ API documentation on docs.rs
- ✅ CI/CD pipeline with automated testing
🚧 In Progress / Partially Complete
- N/A
🔴 Missing Features
- ❌ Jitter Buffer interceptor
- ❌ FEC (Forward Error Correction) interceptor
- ❌ Full Congestion Control (Google Congestion Control / BBR)
- ❌ Complete DTLS Restart support
- ❌ PeerConnection serialization/deserialization
- ❌ Automated performance/allocation testing in CI
- ❌ Automated fuzzing (oss-fuzz integration)
- ❌ Auto changelog generation
- ❌ Embedded/IoT support
- ❌ FFI C API
- ❌ TCP TURN support
Roadmap
Phase 1: Stability & Polish (Q1 2026)
Goal: Make production-ready with excellent developer experience
1.1 Bug Fixes & Stability
- Address all critical TODOs and FIXMEs in codebase
- Resolve flaky integration tests
- Improve error handling and error messages
- Add more validation for invalid inputs
1.2 Documentation & Examples
- Complete API documentation coverage (aim for 100%)
- Add "Getting Started" guide for common use cases
- Create migration guide from traditional WebRTC libraries
- Add troubleshooting guide
- Document performance tuning best practices
- Add more real-world examples:
- Video conferencing server
- Screen sharing
- File transfer over data channels
- Selective forwarding unit (SFU) implementation
- Recording server (save multiple streams to disk)
1.3 Testing & Quality
- Increase unit test coverage to >80%
- Add more WebRTC interoperability tests (Chrome, Firefox, Safari)
- Automated fuzz testing in CI
- Create test suite for NAT traversal scenarios
- Add stress tests for concurrent connections
- Automated performance/allocation testing in CI
Phase 2: Performance & Optimization (Q2 2026)
Goal: Optimize for production workloads and high-performance scenarios
2.1 Performance Optimization
- Profile hot paths and optimize critical sections
- Reduce allocations in packet processing paths
- Optimize DTLS handshake performance
- Improve ICE candidate gathering speed
- Optimize SRTP encryption/decryption (leverage hardware acceleration where possible)
- Add SIMD optimizations where applicable
- SCTP performance improvements
2.2 Benchmarking & Testing
- Create comprehensive benchmark suite
- Benchmark against other WebRTC implementations
- Add CI performance regression testing
- Document performance characteristics
- Publish performance comparison results
2.3 Memory Efficiency
- Audit memory usage patterns
- Reduce memory footprint per connection
- Implement better buffer pooling
- Add memory usage documentation
- Memory profiling tools integration
Phase 3: Advanced Features (Q3 2026)
Goal: Add advanced WebRTC features and expand ecosystem
3.1 Media Quality & Resilience
- Jitter Buffer improvements (if not in Phase 1)
- Adaptive strategies based on network conditions
- Low-latency vs quality tradeoffs
- Full Congestion Control 🔴 Critical for production
- Google Congestion Control (GCC) implementation
- BBR congestion control
- Integration with TWCC feedback
- Bandwidth probing and estimation
- FEC (Forward Error Correction) Interceptor
- FlexFEC support
- RED (Redundant Encoding) support
- Configurable FEC strategies
- H.264 Interceptor 🟠 High Priority
- Analyze and fix common issues (missing SPS/PPS with IDR frames)
- Automatic bitstream repair
- Parameter set injection
3.2 Protocol Extensions
- Perfect Negotiation pattern support
- WebRTC Stats improvements (align with latest W3C spec)
- ICE consent freshness (RFC 7675)
- BUNDLE policy improvements
- RTX (Retransmission) support improvements
3.3 Codec Support
- Expand audio codec support (Opus optimizations, additional codecs)
- Improve H.264/H.265 handling and negotiation
- Add AV1 support improvements (packetization edge cases)
- Codec negotiation enhancements
- Better handling of codec parameters and profiles
Phase 4: Language Bindings & Ecosystem (Q4 2026)
Goal: Make RTC accessible from other languages and build ecosystem
4.1 FFI & Language Bindings
- Complete C API (merge
ffibranch) - Create C header files and documentation
- Python bindings (PyO3)
- Node.js bindings (napi-rs)
- Go bindings (via CGO)
- WASM bindings for browser
- Cross-language example applications
4.2 Integration Libraries
- Integration with popular async runtimes
- Tokio adapter with best practices
- async-std adapter
- smol adapter
- WebSocket signaling library
- HTTP/REST signaling library
- Redis-based signaling for distributed systems
4.3 Higher-Level APIs
- "Batteries included" wrapper for common use cases
- Simplified API for beginners
- Opinionated defaults for quick prototyping
- Framework integrations (e.g., Actix, Axum)
Phase 5: Production Features (2027+)
Goal: Enterprise-ready features for production deployments
5.1 Scalability & Infrastructure
- Connection pooling strategies
- Distributed ICE coordination
- Horizontal scaling patterns
- Load balancing support
- Multi-threaded optimizations
- Better SettingEngine for SFU use cases
5.2 Observability & Monitoring
- Structured logging with tracing
- Metrics export (Prometheus format)
- OpenTelemetry integration
- Connection quality metrics
- Diagnostic tools and utilities
- Real-time debugging tools
5.3 Security & Hardening
- Security audit by external firm 🔴 Critical before 1.0
- Automated fuzzing in production (continuous oss-fuzz)
- DTLS 1.3 support
- Enhanced certificate validation
- Rate limiting and DoS protection
- Security best practices guide
- CVE response process
5.4 Compliance & Standards
- Full W3C WebRTC 1.0 compliance
- RFC compliance verification
- Standards-based testing suite
- Regular spec update tracking
5.5 Developer Experience
- Auto changelog generation
- Automated release process
- Better error messages and diagnostics
- Migration guides between versions
Future Exploration (Beyond 2027)
Emerging Technologies
- QUIC transport integration
- WebRTC over QUIC
- Performance comparisons with UDP
- WebTransport support
- WebCodecs integration
- WebNN (Neural Networks) integration for ML features
- Post-quantum cryptography exploration
Embedded & IoT
- Embedded/IoT platform support
- no_std compatibility where possible
- Reduced memory footprint variants
- Embedded-friendly examples
- ARM/RISC-V optimizations
Ecosystem Growth
- SFU (Selective Forwarding Unit) reference implementation
- MCU (Multipoint Control Unit) reference implementation
- TURN server implementation (pure Rust)
- STUN server implementation
- Signaling server reference implementations
- Media server framework
Developer Experience
- Interactive tutorial website
- Video course/tutorials
- Conference talks and presentations
- Regular blog posts on WebRTC topics
- Community forum/discussions
Contributing to the Roadmap
This roadmap is a living document and we welcome community input:
- Feature Requests: Open an issue with the
enhancementlabel - Prioritization: Join discussions on Discord or GitHub
- Implementation: Check items you're interested in implementing
- Sponsorship: Priority can be influenced by sponsors' needs
Priority Levels
- 🔴 Critical: Blocks production use or causes data loss
- 🟠 High: Important for production deployments
- 🟡 Medium: Nice to have, improves user experience
- 🟢 Low: Future enhancements, non-urgent
Production-Ready Criteria for 1.0
- Complete WebRTC 1.0 spec compliance
- External security audit passed
- Automated fuzzing infrastructure
- Above 80% test coverage
- Comprehensive documentation
- Performance benchmarks published
- Multiple production deployments
- Stable API (no breaking changes planned)
- Active community and maintenance commitment
Comparison with Pion WebRTC
This roadmap incorporates learnings from Pion WebRTC's roadmap. Here's how we
compare:
Feature Comparison of Pion vs RTC
| Feature | Pion Version | RTC Status | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core Protocol Stack | |||
| ICE (Full) | 1.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| DTLS (Native) | 1.2.0 | ✅ Pure Rust | - |
| STUN | 1.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| TURN | 2.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| TCP TURN | 2.2.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| mDNS Candidates | 2.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| SCTP | 1.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| WebRTC Features | |||
| Data Channels | 1.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Configurable Reliability | 2.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Trickle ICE | 2.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Add/Remove Tracks | 2.2.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Unified Plan | 2.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Bundling | 1.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| ICE Restart | 3.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| ICE TCP (Passive) | 3.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| ICE TCP (Active) | 4.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| ICE Regular Nomination | 2.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Media & Codecs | |||
| VP8/VP9 | 1.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| H.264/H.265 | Various | ✅ Packetizers | - |
| AV1 | 3.2.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Opus | Various | ✅ Complete | - |
| PCM | 2.2.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Advanced Features | |||
| Simulcast | 3.0.0 | ✅ Send & Receive | - |
| Sender/Receiver Reports | 3.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| TWCC | 3.1.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Congestion Control | 3.2.0 | 🚧 TWCC only | 🔴 Critical |
| Jitter Buffer | 4.0.0 | ❌ Missing | 🔴 Critical |
| SRTP AEAD-GCM | 3.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Interceptor API | 3.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| NACK Interceptor | 3.0.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| Stats Interceptor | 3.2.0 | ✅ Complete | - |
| H.264 Interceptor | Roadmap | ❌ Missing | 🟢 Low |
| FEC Interceptor | Planned | ❌ Missing | 🟡 Medium |
| DTLS Restart | Planned | 🚧 Partial | 🟡 Medium |
| Development Infrastructure | |||
| Automated Fuzzing | Production | ❌ Missing | 🔴 Critical |
| Performance CI | Production | ❌ Missing | 🔴 High |
| Allocation Tracking | Production | ❌ Missing | 🟠 High |
| Auto Changelog | Production | ❌ Missing | 🟡 Medium |
| API Features | |||
| PeerConnection Serialize | Roadmap | ❌ Missing | 🟠 Medium |
| WASM Support | 2.0.0 | 🚧 Partial | 🟡 Medium |
| Mobile Support | 1.2.0 | ✅ Rust works | - |
| Embedded/IoT (TinyGo) | Roadmap | ❌ no_std | 🟡 Future |
✅ Features We Have (Pion Parity)
- ✅ Complete protocol stack (ICE, DTLS, SCTP, RTP/RTCP, SRTP, SDP)
- ✅ STUN and TURN support (including TCP TURN)
- ✅ Trickle ICE and mDNS
- ✅ Data Channels with configurable reliability
- ✅ Simulcast (send & receive)
- ✅ Interceptor API (NACK, TWCC, Sender/Receiver Reports, Stats)
- ✅ Unified Plan SDP
- ✅ BUNDLE support
- ✅ Add/Remove tracks at runtime
- ✅ ICE Restart
- ✅ AV1, H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9 support
- ✅ UDPMux capability (single port for multiple connections)
- ✅ SRTP AEAD AES-GCM
- ✅ ICE TCP (active/passive candidates)
- ✅ Insertable Streams API
🚧 Features We're Missing (Need Implementation)
- 🔴 Jitter Buffer - Critical for smooth media playback (Pion 4.0.0)
- 🔴 Full Congestion Control - GCC/BBR implementation (Pion 3.2.0)
- 🔴 Automated Fuzzing - oss-fuzz integration (Pion has this)
- 🟠 H.264 Interceptor - Bitstream fixing for common issues (Pion roadmap)
- 🟠 DTLS Restart - Complete implementation (Pion roadmap)
- 🟠 PeerConnection Serialization - Save/restore connection state (Pion roadmap)
- 🟡 FEC Interceptor - Forward Error Correction (planned)
- 🟡 Embedded/IoT Support - Equivalent to TinyGo support (future exploration)
🎯 Our Unique Advantages
- Sans-I/O Architecture - Complete control over I/O, threading, and runtime
- Pure Rust - Memory safety, no CGO overhead, no OpenSSL dependency
- Runtime Independence - Works with any async runtime or blocking I/O
- Modular Design - 15 independent crates for flexible composition
- Zero-Copy Design - Efficient packet processing where possible
📊 Development Infrastructure Comparison
| Feature | Pion | RTC | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automated fuzzing (oss-fuzz) | ✅ | ❌ | 🔴 Critical |
| Performance regression testing | ✅ | ❌ | 🔴 High |
| Allocation tracking in CI | ✅ | ❌ | 🟠 High |
| Auto changelog generation | ✅ | ❌ | 🟡 Medium |
| Comprehensive examples | ✅ | ✅ (30+) | ✅ Done |
| Browser interop tests | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ Done |
Communication
- GitHub Issues: Bug reports and feature requests
- Discord: Real-time discussions and support
- GitHub Discussions: Long-form technical discussions
- Blog: Major announcements and technical deep-dives
- Roadmap Updates: Quarterly reviews and adjustments
Questions or suggestions? Open an issue or join us on Discord!